Bethesda doesn’t want anyone to forget about Quake Champions. The company announced earlier this week that you can sign up for a closed beta of the upcoming FPS, and in the few days since, it’s published two new trailers showing off the Blood Covenant arena and a Champion named Nyx.
The Blood Covenant Arena trailer demonstrates what Bethesda described in a press release as a “modern re-imagining of the legendary” Camping Grounds (Q3DM6) arena from Quake III Arena. “All the favorite sections remain, including the long Jump Pad to the Rocket Launcher, the Quad Damage spawn, the Railgun ledge, and the tightly spaced battles in the Pillars,” Bethesda said. But the arena will also change things up a bit to keep you on your toes.
Quake Champions – Blood Covenant Arena Trailer
That trailer was published a day after Bethesda shared a look at Nyx, a Champion who can jump off walls and teleport around the arena. “If sly and stealthy is more your thing,” Bethesda said in the trailer’s description, “you might find yourself gravitating toward Nyx, whose active ability lets her sidestep danger and plan a careful attack.” Nyx seems to be all about slinking through the shadows and evading harm while angling for the perfect shot.
Quake Champions: Nyx Champion Trailer
Nyx was first revealed when Quake Champions was announced at E3 2016. The fast-paced shooter is being developed by iD Software and Saber Interactive, and we got our first taste of what it will play like at Quakecon in August 2016. We’ve already seen five of these Champions; 12 will be available to you if you participate in the game’s closed beta. Bethesda is sure to reveal more about the game’s arenas and Champions in the meantime.
If you don’t want to wait for the beta, you can play Quake Champions at Bethesda’s booth (#18007 and #20007) at PAX East in Boston this weekend.The game’s release date has not been revealed.
A tiny BIOS chip lurks inside every computer, sitting on your motherboard to breathe life into your system when you press the power button. BIOS stands for basic input and output system, and the BIOS chip initializes all the other devices in your PC, like the CPU, GPU, and motherboard chipset.
A few years ago, motherboard manufacturers—in partnership with Microsoft and Intel—introduced a replacement for traditional BIOS chips dubbed UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface). Almost every motherboard shipping today has a UEFI chip rather than a BIOS chip, but they both share the same core purpose: preparing the system to boot into the operating system. That said, most people still call the UEFI the “BIOS” because of the familiarity of the term.
Why you should (or shouldn’t) upgrade your BIOS
Understanding your UEFI is important so you can understand how (and if) to take advantage of the feature updates and bug fixes that come with the BIOS updates offered by motherboard manufacturers.
Brad Chacos
New chip and motherboard platforms often receive numerous BIOS revisions early in their lifecycle, to work out bugs.
Your motherboard likely uses whatever firmware revision that the motherboard manufacturer was on back when it was built. Over the lifespan of a motherboard, manufacturers release new firmware packages or BIOS updates that will enable support for new processors and memory, or solve commonly reported bugs. The only real reason to update to a newer firmware revision, however, is to solve a bug in your UEFI or to swap in a CPU that’s newer than your motherboard.
Some people like to regularly check for and update their UEFI firmware packages just to stay up to date. This is a risky practice, given that the firmware updating process can potentially brick your motherboard in the same way that flashing a custom ROM on to Android phone can brick the device. It’s best not to update your UEFI firmware unless there is something specific that the updated firmware offers that you need.
That said, you probably want to stay on top of BIOS updates if you’re on a chip or motherboard platform that’s fresh out of the gates. Several motherboard BIOS updates were released over the first week that AMD’s disruptive new Ryzen chips were in reviewers’ hands, and each provided additional performance and system stability. Expect for those to continue as AMD works the bugs out of Ryzen.
Brad Chacos
Before you upgrade your BIOS, make sure you’re actually installing a new version. The easiest way to find your BIOS version is to open up the System Information app by typing msinfo into the Windows search bar. In the window that opens your BIOS version should show up on the right, under your processor speed. Record your version number and date, then compare it to the latest version available on your motherboard’s support page on the manufacturer’s website.
How to upgrade your PC BIOS
When you boot up your PC, you’ll see text that informs you which button to press to enter the UEFI BIOS. Press it! (The exact button needed, and the design of every motherboard’s actual UEFI control panel differs, so these instructions will be more guideposts than step-by-step instructions.)
Although not all motherboards offer this feature, on certain models you can boot into the UEFI control panel and use a built-in update utility to connect to the Internet and flash the latest firmware from the manufacture’s server. This extremely nice feature makes updating to newer firmware revisions as painless as possible.
Brad Chacos
The process is a bit more involved for motherboards that don’t support this feature. First you’ll need to find your motherboard’s support page on the manufacturer’s website. The latest BIOS update should be in the support and downloads section. You’ll need to download and unzip the file, dump it onto a USB flash drive, and reboot your computer into the UEFI control panel.
From there, you’ll need to launch the UEFI’s firmware update tool or flashing tool and back up your PC’s existing firmware to your flash drive—just in case something goes wrong. Then use the same UEFI utility to select the new firmware image you downloaded from its location on the flash drive. Running the firmware update utility should take just a couple of minutes, but make sure not to shut off your PC during this process. This is critical.
Once the flashing process finishes, restart your computer and your updated PC BIOS is ready to rock.
Some manufacturers offer utilities that can update your UEFI chip from directly inside Windows by running an .exe file, but we strongly recommend using one of the two methods above to avoid any problems.
Again, updating your PC’s BIOS can provide many benefits, but it’s important to understand the risks. Don’t touch it if there isn’t a clear, compelling reason to update your UEFI firmware. That said, if you want to drop in a newer CPU into an older motherboard, then it’s clear that a BIOS update lies in your future.
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Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is available March 10, and if you’re planning to pick up one of the mighty beasts, you’re going to need version 378.78 of Nvidia’s GeForce Game Ready driver. The latest driver is the first public release with support for the company’s top gaming GPU, DX12 performance enhancements, and further game support for Nvidia’s advanced graphics technologies.
Even if you aren’t picking up one of Nvidia’s $700 graphics cards, you could probably stand to benefit from an upgrade to 378.78. Nvidia spent considerable effort refining Direct X 12 on GeForce GPUs. The company worked with game developers to improve performance in a handful of popular DX12-enabled games.
Nvidia’s marketing team will tell you the new driver improved performance in DX12 “by an average of 16% across five titles,” but take that claim with a grain of salt. The performance increase varies widely between games, and Nvidia’s statement is based on 4K performance, as the fine print on Nvidia’s table points out.
Rise of the Tomb Raider enjoys a dramatic 33% FPS increase when playing the game at 4K on max settings. But you likely wouldn’t play the game on those settings, because even though the performance went from 20FPS to 27FPS while running a GTX 1080, that’s still a low FPS for a PC game. And The Division’s 4% performance increase is negligible, as it went from 31.5FPS to 32.7FPS, which would be utterly imperceptible.
Nvidia said that the new driver improves Vulkan performance on GeForce GPUs, but it didn’t give any specific performance metrics to back that statement.
A GeForce Game Ready driver wouldn’t be a “game ready” driver if it didn’t include support for a new release title. GeForce Game Ready driver 378.78 includes support for Ubisoft’s new open-world shooter, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands. The latest entry in the Ghost Recon franchise leverages a variety of Nvidia’s GameWorks proprietary graphics technologies, such as Enhance Volumetric Lighting, HBAO+ Ambient Occlusion, and Nvidia Turf Effects.
Ghost Recon: Wildlands is also the latest title to receive support for Nvidia’s in-game photography system, Nvidia Ansel, which lets you snap high-resolution screenshots of the game’s scenery from any perspective.
Nvidia’s GeForce Game Ready driver 378.78 is available now. If you have GeForce Experience installed, the driver update should be ready for you. If you don’t use GeForce Experience, the driver is available from Nvidia’s website.
1Password Demo VaultAgileBits, the company behindone of the most popular password managers, 1Password, announced that it increased its maximum bug bounty from $25,000 to $100,000. This big reward is part of a “Capture the Flag” type competition, where researchers have to obtain a plaintext file of “bad poetry” from 1Password’s password vault.
BugCrowd
BugCrowd is a crowdsourced bug bounty platform that allows companies to easily set-up programs to reward security researchers for their findings. This makes it easier for researchers to get paid for their work, and it also encourages them to further explore the security of various software tools. Companies such as Western Union, Pinterest, Heroku, Tesla, and Fiat Chrysler all use the BugCrowd platform.
1Password’s Capture The Flag
Some organizations create “Capture the Flag” challenges on BugCrowd to incentivize researchers to focus on specific areas. Normally, researchers are rewarded smaller amounts of money for random bugs they may find in vendors’ products. However, when the companies create a Capture the Flag challenge, they are better prepared and the challenge is more specific, which makes it more difficult for the researchers to break in. This is why the companies also tend to offer bigger rewards to the winners.
AgileBits had previously set up a $25,000 bug bounty for a Capture the Flag challenge in which researchers had to obtain a “bad poetry” flag from the encrypted password vault. Now the company has raised the reward to $100,000, which is four times as much as before, and is also the highest existing reward on the BugCrowd platform.
“Security is at the heart of what we do,” said Jeff Shiner of AgileBits.
“We owe it to our customers to do everything in our power to keep them and their information secure. This means using the ingenuity of real people to help us continually improve the security of 1Password. It was important for us to demonstrate how seriously we take this contribution and have increased the prize to prove it,” he noted.
Recently, a researcher found multiple vulnerabilities in a number of password managers, including 1Password. However, according to an update on March 1, all vendors have already fixed the bugs, which should include 1Password as well.
AgileBits also said that with recent events such as Cloudbleed, it’s becoming more and more important for companies to put more emphasis on security. Having a good bug bounty program can be one of the ways to do that, because they can help companies stay one step ahead of the attackers.
Thermaltake has become increasingly adventurous with its case design over the last few years, but the new Core P7 TG marks a truly extraordinary chassis – not only does it have a main section, but it also comes with two extended chassis’ to give it some immense water cooling support. If you’re asking yourself whether there is any practicality to this particular design, let me answer that question with one word: no. It’s just a crazy way of showing off your hardware.
The main section of the chassis holds up to an E-ATX motherboard as well as a bunch of hard drives and SSDs along with the power supply. There is also a radiator mount for up to a 480mm unit, however, if you’re already using the wings for radiators, do you really need a third one? The wings will each also house up to a 480mm radiator along with a cylindrical reservoir/pump combo unit, which together will offer more cooling power than you could probably ever need. Thermaltake ensured that you can disassemble the entire case down to its individual pieces, and many of the hard drive mounts and various other parts can be placed where you want thanks to a flexible modular design. You can also opt to mount the wings not only in parallel with the case, but also 45°, 90°, and 270° off-angle. Although the main section has a neat 5mm thick slab of tempered glass to keep prying hands away, the wings do not.
Going in-line with the impracticality of this chassis, it weighs a rather hefty 25.5kg when empty, and it measures 1.35 meters wide with the wings fully extended. Fortunately, the Core P7 TG is part of Thermaltake’s lineup of wall-mountable cases – fitting this chassis on your desk just wouldn’t be feasible. On the wall above your monitor though; that could look great!
The Nintendo 3DS is a great handheld console with a range of hugely popular games available, but taking and sharing screenshots from the handheld console is a notoriously difficult process. Here, we explain the limitations of screenshotting on a Nintendo 3DS, along with how to take screenshots on a Nintendo 3DS.
While it might be difficult, it’s not impossible to take and share screenshots on a Nintendo 3DS
The Nintendo 3DS is a great handheld console with a range of hugely popular games available, from Pokemon to Monster Hunter and even Animal Crossing. But while there is a range of great games available for the Nintendo 3DS, taking and sharing screenshots from the handheld console is a notoriously difficult process. Here, we explain the limitations of screenshotting on a Nintendo 3DS, along with how to take screenshots on a Nintendo 3DS. Read next: New Nintendo 3DS XL review
Nintendo doesn’t offer built-in capture software with the 3DS
So, why is it so hard to take screenshots on a Nintendo 3DS? While many other consoles, including the PS4, Xbox One and even Nintendo’s new modular console, the Nintendo Switch feature the ability to easily take and share screenshots on social media, the option is still missing from the Nintendo 3DS.
While no-one is sure why Nintendo decided not to offer screenshot support on the 3DS (or even offer it as part of a software update), the Nintendo community has come up with a handful of workarounds that have varying levels of success.
Most recommend uploading screenshots via Miiverse, which is what we go into detail about below, although it isn’t a method that’ll work with any Nintendo game. If that’s not up your street, some hardcore gamers opt to mod their 3DS to include a capture card. This, of course, voids the 3DS warranty and will set interested users back over £200 from certain online retailers (none of which we can vouch for).
So, for now, we’ll be concentrating on capturing and sharing Nintendo 3DS screenshots using Nintendo’s Miiverse. Don’t worry: there’s a way to get them onto your PC (and social media too, if you desire).
Before we go any further, it’s worth noting that to take screenshots on a Nintendo 3DS, your 3DS needs to not only be up to date with the latest software, but also connected to an active WiFi connection.
To check whether your 3DS is up-to-date, head to System Settings on the Home menu then select Other Settings and head to page 4 (or 5 if you’re using the new 3DS XL). Select System Update, then tap OK, and your 3DS will connect to the internet and download any available updates.
Once you’re up to date and connected to WiFi, simply follow these instructions to take screenshots on a Nintendo 3DS:
1) Head to the Miiverse website and browse the Nintendo 3DS communities section. All games available in this section can be screenshotted on a Nintendo 3DS, while those without communities are out of luck for now.
2) Play your 3DS game until you want to take a screenshot. When you want to save a screenshot, hit the Home button below the touchscreen display on your 3DS.
3) On the Home menu, open Miiverse (the green icon in the top-right of the touch-enabled display).
4) Create a new post in the community of the game that you’re playing (like the Pokemon Sun and Moon community, if you were playing Pokemon Sun) and tap the Attach Screenshot button before posting it to Miiverse.
5) Using a PC or Mac, head to the Miiverse website and sign in with your Nintendo Network ID credentials (this should be the same as the account used on your 3DS).
6) Once successfully logged in, select User Menu from within the navigation bar to the left of the site.
7) Select Profile, and browse for the post with the screenshot that you shared and click on it. From here, right-click the image and save the picture to your Mac or PC (the image saving process varies slightly between not only browsers, but operating systems too).
There you go! You should now have a Nintendo 3DS screenshot ready to be shared on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else online. We know it’s not the ideal way to take and share screenshots from your Nintendo 3DS, but without any official method from Nintendo, it’s about as good as it gets – for now, anyway.
Although not exactly novel, split-design keyboards are relatively rare, which is why it’s notable that there’s a new contender raising Kickstarter funds to produce one focused on gaming. Kinesis Gaming is looking to drum up $50,000 to finish funding production on a keyboard it’s calling the Freestyle Edge (which kind of sounds like a 1990s skater kid clothing line, but who are we to judge).
Reformatting The Layout
The company’s big idea is that most gamers don’t really use the entire keyboard; primarily, they’re making use of the WASD cluster, several of the keys around them (depending on the type of game), the spacebar, and dedicated left-side macro keys. For many, the numpad is just in the way and takes up valuable desk space–some keyboard makers, including Asus and Tesoro, developed removable numpad modules to address this very issue–and so as part of its design plan, Kinesis Gaming nixed it. Therefore, the Freestyle Edge is technically a TKL keyboard, but Kinesis Gaming saw fit to add ten additional keys on the left side. Eight of those are programmable, but the two on the bottom have dedicated functions (toggle layers on/off, toggle LEDs on/off).
This makes sense, although the company’s implementation results in a rather odd key layout. For instance, note that the Esc key is double wide and positioned above the macro keys instead of above the main key area, and the F keys are shifted to the left of where they would normally be. Further, on the right side, Kinesis Gaming added a vertical row of a few of the keys you’d normally find on the numpad, such as Scroll Lock, Print Screen, Home, End, Pg Up, and Pg Dn.
The arrow keys are there as well, but instead of being set off by themselves, they’re sort of crammed in there with a bunch of other keys. For example, the up arrow key is right underneath the Enter key. This cuts off the right Shift key, making it narrower than normal.
It’s hard to disagree with the decision to include some of those keys, although because they’re in a non-traditional spot, some users will likely have trouble finding them intuitively.
Kinesis Gaming’s split design implementation keeps the two halves of the keyboard connected by a 20-inch cable that connects to the top/back of the two parts. This lets you squish the two halves together, position them at whatever angle(s) are most convenient for you, keep them wide enough that you can place a joystick between them, or move the right-side one out of the way and use just the left-side one for gaming.
They also each have a removable palm rest.
The Lift Kit
The Freestyle Edge also has a Lift Kit. Like ergonomic keyboards, part of the allure of the split design is that you can position the pieces in a way most comfortable for you, and propping them up in the middle gives you a nice ergonomic slant. Kinesis Gaming did not overlook this feature.
The Lift Kit consists of two risers that let you “tent” either or both of the keyboard halves at 5, 10, or 15 degrees. You’ll need to employ the palm wrests if you use the Freestyle Edge in this configuration.
The Lift Kit is not a standard feature of the Freestyle Edge, though; you’ll have to pay extra to get them. However, that’s not an unwise decision on Kinesis Gaming’s part; some users won’t be interested in the Lift Kits, so keeping them as an optional accessory reduces the cost of the keyboard itself.
Key Caps, Switches, And Lighting
Kinesis Gaming is in the tank for Cherry. Its Kickstarter reads in part, “Some keyboard manufacturers are moving away from Cherry to ‘clone’ switchesto save money, but they aren’t always passing those savings on to you, the customer. In gaming, every key stroke counts, which is why we insist on using only authentic Cherry switches.”
The Freestyle Edge features Cherry MX switches, mostly; the four keys in the “Programming Cluster” actually have Cherry ML switches. For now, you have the option of choosing Cherry MX Red, Brown, or Blue switches. The Kickstarter noted, “Down the road we hope to be able to offer the Edge in the full-array of Cherry switches, but for our first manufacturing run we had to make some tough choices.” Thus, for now, there will be no Cherry MX Blacks, Greens, Clears, Silent, Speed, etc.
One capitulation Kinesis Gaming made was on lighting. The Freestyle Edge has blue LEDs only, although there are nine brightness levels and a breathing effect you can switch on.
The key caps are ABS plastic, and the company boasted that its key cap legends will show up in the dark with the LEDs off better than other key caps thanks to its three-step “paint-and-laser” process:
“Here’s how it works: 1) each keycap gets a base-layer of translucent white paint, then 2) a top-coat of black paint is applied, then 3) the keycaps are laser engraved to remove just the black layer of paint to create the bright white key legend (not gray plastic).”
Kinesis Gaming also noted that although the Freestyle Edge’s layout is unorthodox, (almost) all of the keys are standard sizes. A notable exception is the split spacebar, which has two separate 3.5x lengths. Although the right-side Ctrl and Shift keys are not standard sizes for normal Ctrl and Shift keys, they are 1.75x width. To replace them, you’ll have to find 1.75x with custom legends.
Configuration: On Keyboard Or “On Keyboard”
You can configure the Freestyle Edge via either onboard controls or a GUI. It’s worth noting that the GUI, which is called the SmartSet App, is not software that runs on your PC; instead, it’s a 1MB application that runs on the keyboard itself. Thus, you get thoroughly portable configuration software. The keyboard is plug-and-play, too, so ostensibly you should be able to bring the Freestyle Edge to any PC, plug it on, and pull up the GUI. No installation required.
You can see it in action here:
For on-keyboard programmability, Kinesis Gaming focused on four additional hardware buttons that are located at the top of the right half of the Freestyle Edge: Layout, Macro, Remap, and the “SmartSet” key.
Because the Freestyle Edge has 4MB of onboard memory, you can create and save up to 10 key layouts and “hundreds of additional layouts”, and you can remap any of the 95 keys. You can also record and bind macros on the fly, and the SmartSet key gives you control over the lighting brightness, and lets you toggle NKRO mode and Game mode, get the Status Report, and update the firmware.
Note that within layouts, there are actually two programmable layers. For example, the “top” layer in a given layout may be a WYSIWYG situation, but the second layer could map media controls onto the F keys. The bottom left key in the extra bank of keys toggles these layers on and off.
Specs And Pricing
The Freestyle Edge is not cheap. The basic model–sans Lift Kits but with the palm rests–will run you $219. If you add the Lift Kit, you’ll add $30 to the total, bringing the cost to $249. There are deals if you back the Kickstarter, though.
The “First Edition” round of the Freestyle Edge–a small initial run of 210 of the devices–will be in buyers’ hands in the July-August timeframe. The mass production run will start in September and be distributed to buyers thereafter.
However, the Kickstarter campaign has less than half of that $50,000 raised so far at press time, and if it’s not fully funded, Kinesis Gaming won’t move forward with the project. There are 29 days left in the campaign.
Product
Kinesis Gaming Freestyle Edge
Type
Ergonomic, split, TKL
Switch
Cherry MX Red, Brown, or Blue
Microcontroller
32-bit Atmel microcontroller
Onboard Storage
4MB
Lighting
Blue LEDs only
Key Rollover
NKRO
Interface
USB
Cable
Braided
Additional Ports
No
Key Caps
ABS plastic,three-step “paint-and-laser” process for legends
Weight
Approx. 2.5lbs
Software
SmartSet App (runs on keyboard, not PC, compatible only with Windows)
Misc.
-Plug-and-play -Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome -Plate-mounted switch design -2-year warranty -Lift Kit (detachable, sold separately) and Palm Pads -Onboard macro, layout, remapping, and lighting controls -Halves connected by 20-inch cable